USA Vs. Russia: Missile Defense :: essays research papers

National Missile Defense: USA Vs. Russia For the past several years, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and most congressional Republicans have wanted to set up a national missile defense system, designed to defend the United States against a small number of long-range missiles. The Clinton administration maintained that there was no current or potential missile threat to the United States that would justify the deployment of such a defense. At the same time the administration has pursued its "3+3" plan to spend three years developing a national missile defense -- by 2000 -- that could then be deployed in another three years -- by 2003, if a decision were made to deploy. George W. Bush, upon being elected, has given 6 months notice that the US is going to back out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed in 1972 (which clearly states that we cannot build a national missile defense), in order to establish our national missile defense system. The reason simply being the fear of attacks from countries with long range missiles as well as other nuclear weapons. Countries such as China, North Korea, and Iraq. Russia, among other countries, were angered by the US's decision to back out of the treaty, therefore adding to the conflict. Most people are not clear on what exactly the missile defense system is, or what it does. Basically it's, as Bush puts it, a system for intercepting other countries nuclear missiles aimed for us with a dummy non-explosive missile of our own. For example, if North Korea invaded South Korea and the US threatened to intervene, North Korea could threaten us back with a nuclear missile aimed for New York, Los Angeles, or any major city or landmark in our country. Bush would be willing to take the risk of the missile defense system intercepting the enemy missile, even though more than half the tests of the system have not worked correctly. Russia's view on the United State's construction of a missile defense system is naturally not a positive one. Peter Kilfoyle, a loudmouth critic of Russia's defense policies has been a persistent thorn in the side of the government on defense issues. He criticised the "unilateralism" of the US administration in pressing ahead with the missile defence plan, warning that the Russians had been left feeling "peeved and let down", while the Chinese were about to quadruple their stock of intercontinental ballistic missiles.